British Ebola sufferer William Pooley given experimental drug ZMapp and sitting up in bed

William Pooley being given the same drug that was credited with saving the
lives of two American missionaries

The British Ebola sufferer William Pooley is being given the experimental drug ZMapp and is sitting up, talking and reading in his hospital bed, his doctors have revealed.

Mr Pooley, 29, is being given the same drug that was credited with saving the lives of two American missionaries earlier this month and was described today as a “resilient and remarkable young man”.

It had been thought that supplies of ZMapp had run out, but doctors at the Royal Free Hospital managed to get hold of some from abroad and Mr Pooley was given the first dose on Monday. Further doses are expected to be given to him "in due course".

The staff looking after him at an isolation unit in the Royal Free had lengthy discussions with Mr Pooley about the possible pitfalls of taking the unlicensed drug before he gave them the go-ahead to prescribe it.

Dr Michael Jacobs, consultant and clinical lead in infectious diseases at the hospital, said: "We have had the opportunity to give him the ZMapp treatment that I am sure you are aware of.

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"It is an experimental medicine, we made that absolutely clear in our discussions with him."

Dr Jacobs added: "What has become apparent to us is that he is clearly a rather resilient and remarkable young man."

Mr Pooley’s condition was described as “very stable”, and he is sitting up in bed, talking, reading and is in good spirits.

Dr Jacobs said: "We are giving him the very best care possible. However, the next few days will be crucial. The disease has a variable course and we will know much more in a week's time.

"Will is in a stable position and we are very pleased with where he is. It would be fair to say we couldn't hope to be in a better place today given how far he is into the illness.

"What we want to do is give him the best chance we can and that's why we used the ZMapp. He was very, very keen to go ahead and wanted to do so," he said.

"We thought there was sufficient reason to offer it to him and have the discussion. He considered his options very, very carefully. It is an experimental drug. He wanted to weigh up what we knew about it and he came to the very clear conclusion in his own mind that he would like to go ahead with the treatment."

He said it was "too early" to say what impact the drug has had but added: "Pleasingly, it seems to have had no side effects at all."

Mr Pooley was said to be in "remarkably good spirits given the situation he finds himself in".

There is no cure for Ebola, but encouraging results with people who have been given ZMapp suggest it is the nearest thing to a cure currently available.

The drug has not yet been tested for safety or effectiveness on humans and its manufacturer, California-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc, only started developing it at the start of 2014.

It was given to the two US aid workers, Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, after they were flown to a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, from Liberia.

Both have since been discharged from hospital after recovering. But others treated have been less fortunate. A Liberian doctor and a Spanish priest who received the plant-derived drug in Africa both died.

On its website, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says: "At this time, very few courses of this experimental treatment have been manufactured.

"Since the product is still in an experimental stage, it is too early to know whether ZMapp is effective.

"The manufacturer of this experimental treatment continues to research and evaluate the product's safety and effectiveness.

"It has not yet been tested in humans for safety or effectiveness and much more study is needed."

In Sierra Leone, where Mr Pooley was working as a volunteer at a hospital in Kenema when he tested positive for Ebola on Saturday, patients are given little more than paracetamol and water, to stave off fever and dehydration.

The current outbreak has killed 57 per cent of people who have caught Ebola.

Gabriel Madiye, director of a hospice where Mr Pooley had been working before volunteering to treat Ebola patients in Kenema, said: “From my sources I understand he is doing fine and he is receiving good care.

“He phoned me just after he arrived back in England and said he would call me in another two weeks, when he said he would have recovered.”

Mr Pooley's family are at the hospital but will only be able to see him through the plastic tent that isolates him from staff and visitors to stop the virus spreading through bodily fluids.